Stand: The Heir Trilogy
by B34chBum94
Summary: To the song "Stand" by Rascal Flatts. It takes place during the final battle at the end of Dragon Heir. It's about the loss and pain all of the characters experience, but also about how they are able to get back up and continue on. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED DRAGON HEIR!


**Hey guys,**

**Before I do anything else, I want to dedicate this song-fic to Emily who gave me the idea. I started working on it in like September, but I've had no time to add to it. Well, my family and I went on a Christmas vacation and I finally finished it on the plane. So here it is.**

**This is to the song "Stand" by Rascal Flatts. I put it to Dragon Heir because I thought it fit extremely well.**

**Read and Review,**

**Dist**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Heir Trilogy or the song. All credit goes to their original creators.**

* * *

**Stand**

_No! _Leesha's insides screamed as she saw Jason fall. Without thinking Leesha ran through the gate and helped Jack and Seph get back to the safety of Trinity.

They walked to the makeshift hospital in the park, Seph carrying Jason's body and Jack cradling a wounded Ellen. When they arrived, Seph and Jack laid their friends on cots inside the pavilion. Mercedes, one of the healers, was immediately at Jason's side.

Leesha sat to the side, staring at Jason. _Jason_. His name resonated through her mind. Jason Haley, the one guy she had ever actually loved, the one guy who had changed her life forever. _Wake up _she demanded silently. _Come on, Jason, we have a war to win._

"You be at peace, now, boy." Mercedes' voice brought Leesha out of her trance. _WHAT!_ She wanted to scream. _No! Look again. You're wrong. He's not dead. He can't be. I didn't get to say goodbye! I didn't have time to apologize, to explain, to tell him how much I love him._ She wanted to scream but she didn't. Instead, Leesha walked towards Jason's cot with tears streaming down her face.

When she got to him, she undid the bindings on his hands and kissed him. _Jason, why? Why did you do that? What am I supposed to do now? I feel so alone without you. How am I supposed to get through this?_

_**You feel like a candle in a hurricane**_

_**Just like a picture with a broken frame**_

_**Alone and helpless, like you've lost your fight**_

_**But you'll be all right**_

"I'd better go back," Leesha heard Jack's voice through the fog that clouded her mind. "They'll need me at the wall." _That's what I'll do,_ she thought, _I'll fight for what Jason believed in, what we all believe in. We're not going to win, but if I'm going down, I'm going to take those bastards with me._

"I should go too. But…" Seph was talking as Leesha approached.

"You all stay. I'll go to the wall."

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees, you look up**_

_**Decide you've had enough**_

_**You get mad, you get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands, shake it off**_

_**Then you stand, then you stand**_

* * *

Leesha's words had surprised him. The Leesha Jack had dated would never have been willing to put her own life at risk for others. He didn't understand it, but he was glad. He didn't want to go back to the wall and leave Ellen. He needed to be sure she was ok.

The group had moved to one of the picnic tables outside of the pavilion. Jack was anxious. He paced back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Mercedes emerged from the pavilion.

"Ellen's alive." Those two words were the happiest and most important Jack had ever heard. They made him joyous! He forgot for a moment the sadness and destruction that had caused those words to be said. "She needs to be churched."

Jack and Will went inside and laid Ellen out on a stretcher. Before picking her up, Jack leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You're doing great, babe. Hold on. Just keep holding on."

_**Life's like a novel with the end ripped out**_

_**The edge of a canyon with only one-way down**_

_**Take what you're given before it's gone**_

_**And start holdin' on, keep holdin' on**_

When they got to the church, Jack and Will laid the stretcher on the alter. Mercedes examined Ellen again and found the entry point of the wound. Jack stood by Ellen's head and whispered nonsense phrases, trying to calm himself. Mercedes seemed at a sort of loss for what to do.

"Mercedes," it was Madison, "maybe I can do something." Mercedes moved aside. Madison touched her hand to the wound and then became rigid, like she was going through something very unpleasant. Jack knew from experience that Madison was drawing out the magic of the wound. As she finished, Ellen cried out. She was fighting. Jack was hopeful. He felt power and confidence return to his body. He was ready to follow Ellen's lead. He was ready to fight.

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees, you look up**_

_**Decide you've had enough**_

_**You get mad, you get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands, shake it off**_

_**Then you stand, then you stand**_

* * *

Seph rounded the corner of the stairs and saw Madison lying on the floor. She clutched the stone to her chest and for a few minutes she just stayed still. Then, she started screaming, one of those blood curdling screams of someone in the deepest form of pain.

"Madison!" Seph called as he ran to her, but someone grabbed his arm.

"Leave her." It was Nick. Seph just stared at him, confused. But only for a moment.

"Let go, Nick." Seph struggled against the old man's surprisingly strong grip. "She needs help."

"You can't help her, Seph. She needs to do this on her own."

"Nick, look at her. I can't just leave her!"

"You must. Look." Seph turned back to where Maddie still lay withering on the floor. That's when he noticed. A bright, golden light had surrounded her, and Seph watched as the Dragonheart began to disappear.

"What's going on? What's happening?" Seph was scared. Madison had absorbed magic before, but never so much. What would happen to her? What effects did the magic of the Dragonheart have on the beholder?

As the Dragonheart fully dissolved, Madison let out another shrill scream. Then it was over. Slowly, Madison sat up. Tears flooded her face. "It's gone." Her voice was full of deafening defeat.

"Not gone." Nick began to slowly approach her. Seph and Jack followed suit. "Madison," Seph whispered. He came towards her, like he would a bomb that could blow at any moment.

Madison stood, but she didn't stop there. Before Seph's eyes, Maddie began to change. She grew taller and taller. Her skin turned into bright, shiny scales. A light ran down her arms as they grew longer and fuller, transforming into long, elegant wings.

"No," Seph pleaded as he saw her eyes change from the beautiful ones he so loved into horrible, terrifying, vertical slits. "Please. Maddie…"

_**Every time you get up**_

_**And get back in the race**_

"Madison," Nick looked at her with soft eyes, the kind that understood pain and loss. "You do indeed have the means to save us all, but you must act quickly and with intelligence. I can teach you some things, but there is not much time."

"How? With what?" Madison was confused. The Lady was gone. It was just her now, just Maddie. She knew how to control her elicitor power. Nick didn't need to teach her anything. She looked at the others, silently asking them if they knew what was going on. They looked just as lost as she was.

"With the Dragonheart."

Madison looked at him. _Maybe he's gone crazy,_ she thought. "The Dragonheart is gone."

Nick came to her. "You are mistaken." He put his fingers on the base of her collarbone. "The Dragonheart is here."

"What?" _Ok, he has lost it._

"Madison, like it or not, you are, shall we say, the Dragon Heir."

_**One more small piece of you**_

_**Starts to fall into place**_

A long body slithered out of the church doorway. As it stood, only one word came to Jessamine Longbranch's mind, Dragon. She could hear Wylie saying something about the glamour they had seen at Second Sister. But Jess knew that this was no trick, this dragon was real. Wizards ran towards the beast in wave, but all of them fell with shrill shrieks. The remaining wizards scattered, all of them except Jess and Wylie.

"Geoffrey Wylie." The beast called to him. Her voice was soft, but stern. Wylie covered his head with his arms, as if he could hide himself from the monster's wrath.

The dragon transformed itself into a Lady, dressed on a monk's robe. The light about her made it impossible to see what she truly looked like. She walked down the stops and stood at the bottom. She called to Wylie, "Come forward." Slowly and heisitently he did as she asked. "You have perverted and slandered my gift to you." She rested her had upon Wylie's chest and in an almost gentle voice she said, "And so I take it back."

Wylie gripped the Lady's arm and screamed at the top of his lounges. Then he collapsed, gasping for breath and weeping.

"You are now Anaweir," the Lady said. "Your link to the Dragonheart is broken. Live on in the knowledge of what you've lost." She then turned her gaze upon Jess. "Jessamine Longbranch!"

Jess tried to run but was slammed to the ground. "Leave me alone! I've done nothing wrong."

"Come." Against her will, Jess was drawn back to where the Lady stood. "You are a murderer, a slavemaster, a ruiner of lives. Jason and—and Maddie are dead, and Ellen's hurt, and believe e, I've abouthad it u to _here." _She paused, as if trying to gain control of her emotions. "You have desecrated the gift of power and so I take it back." The Lady reached and touched Jess's chest. "You are Anaweir."

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees, you look up**_

_**Decide you've had enough**_

_**You get mad, you get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands, shake it off**_

_**Then you stand, then you stand**_

_**Yeah, then you stand, yeah**_

_**Yeah, baby**_

_**Woo hoo, woo hoo, woo hoo, woo hoo**_

_**Then you stand, yeah, yeah**_


End file.
